


The List of Days That Changed Everything

by Azure (Fancy_Ravenclaw)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-15 19:19:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11812524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fancy_Ravenclaw/pseuds/Azure
Summary: Three days off the list of Days That Changed Everything. Dan and Phil get a corgi, but a year later Phil moves out to go live with his new girlfriend.





	1. The Best and the Worst day

**Author's Note:**

> This was a prompt by @curvypml on Tumblr, submitted to the Phanfic Tumblr.

In his whole life, there were only a few days on which something happened that changed everything. He’d count the birth of his brother, finishing his A levels, dropping out of university, and moving in with Phil as some of those days. Most of them were happy memories. The happiest being the day he and Phil went to pick up their new dog. 

It was a surprisingly warm day in Spring when they set out. They took a taxi as the breeder’s place was just out of reach of the underground, and they figured it wasn’t a good idea to bring a puppy on the underground anyway. During the forty-minute drive Phil kept squeezing Dan’s hand, making them both more nervous. 

A man stood outside the house to meet them. His name was Christian, they’d met him when they’d come to pick a puppy. And even though that meeting was a month ago and their doggy was now four weeks older, they still recognised him immediately. And he seemed to recognise them too; skipping over to them excitedly, much more steady on his feet now than he had been before.

“His little legsies!” Dan said, delighted. He picked their puppy up and snuggled it against his face. It let out a soft, high-pitched bark that made Dan and Phil melt.

“You’d be surprised at what those small legs can do.” Christian said. “Have you ever seen a corgi run?”

“Oh, they’re really fast, aren’t they?” Phil asked.

“Yes, they could definitely outrun you.”

Dan and Phil exchanged glances that said ‘that probably says more about you than about the dog’.

“Here, let me show you.” Christian picked up a squeaky toy off the floor and called the mother dog’s name. Ellie trotted after him happily on her little legs. 

They went into the large garden, where a few older corgis were lying in the grass or playing together. Phil immediately sank to his knees to hug one of the dogs closest to him.

“Check this out.” Christian said. He dangled the toy in front of Ellie to get her attention, and then tossed it far away from him. Ellie broke into a sprint that assured Dan he was really not going to outrun this dog ever. It was even better when Ellie had picked up the toy and started running back. He too now dropped to his knees to meet the dog that was dashing towards him, while holding his own puppy against his chest. 

The whole place had been a dream come true.

“They’re little disproportionate Sonics.” Phil said when Ellie jumped into Dan’s arms and pressed the slobbery toy in his face. 

As Dan carefully put Ellie’s feet back on the ground and threw the toy away from him, he said, “You know, they really are.”

And that was how little Sonic got his name. Although it was not entirely because he was fast, but also because they found it hilarious to give their little dorky dog such a badass name.

After they’d brought him home they’d still laugh every time they called Sonic and the puppy came dashing towards them, often crashing into furniture or tripping over his own feet because running was just that much harder than walking and required some practice.

That day was Dan’s favourite on the list of Days That Changed Everything. This list really only had one bad day. The day Phil left.

Dan had seen it coming for months, of course. Only five months after the happiest day Phil had gotten himself a girlfriend. She was a beginning Youtuber; only 100K subscribers, and they’d met at the YouTube building. Dan had kept quiet every time she came over, and every time he saw them snuggled together on the couch. He pretended he didn’t care and was getting quite good at this act, until Sonic started getting excited when she came around. It felt dumb to admit, even to himself, but Phil choosing someone else over him was a heartbreak he could hide, but his own Sonic choosing someone else over him was one he couldn’t keep inside him. He started picking fights with Phil. He couldn’t help himself, he was always angry but never about the thing he was shouting about. The fact that Phil stuck around as long as he did was really more surprising than the fact that he left. He moved in with Denise eleven months and twenty-seven days after they had adopted Sonic.

The weather was as nice as it had been the year before even though it should have been raining as Dan watched Phil put the last box in the truck and waved. Sonic was sat next to Dan in the doorframe. The only thing he had left of the happiest time in his life. 

He watched the moving truck disappear out of sight and stood still in his place for a bit longer than that. After that he sat down on the ground. He couldn’t bear going back into the apartment when the empty places where furniture had been reminded him of all the things Phil took with him when he walked out the door.


	2. The Day That Started A New Life

Four days after Phil had left Dan got a phone call. 

He’d been ignoring texts and missing phone calls ever since he had gotten to his feet in the door opening and dragged himself up the stairs a few days before. Sonic had taken to picking up the phone in his mouth and bringing it to Dan. Maybe he thought Dan had gone deaf and couldn’t hear his phone ringing anymore. He did glance at the screen before declining the call, just to remind himself that Phil wasn’t going to contact him. 

Dan almost declined out of habit that day, when he rechecked the caller ID. His breath caught in his throat and with shaky hands he tapped Accept.

“Hello?”

“Dan? It’s Phil.”

“Hello.” Dan sank down onto the floor and rested his head against the sofa.

“I think we should talk about a shared custody agreement.”

“What?” Dan sat up straighter.

“About Sonic. I want to see him too, Dan.”

“You’re the one who left. “

“You know it’s not like that.”

“It is. You got a girlfriend and now you want to take my dog away from me too?”

“He’s not your dog.” Phil reminded him. “We got him together.”

Dan could feel his eyes filling up with tears but he ignored them. “You can’t have everything. You can’t just take both things I love most in life away from me.”

“Both?”

Dan hung up the phone.

After that he hoped he wouldn’t hear from Phil again, even though he knew that was unlikely. Sonic was Phil’s dog too. He loved him just as much as Dan did. It just didn’t seem fair that Phil would get to have a girlfriend and his dog, and Dan would be left emptyhanded and alone.

When the doorbell rang the next day and Sonic jumped up to dash to the door, Dan knew what was waiting for him on the other side. He ran a hand through his hair and slowly walked to the door, as if trying to prevent the inevitable from happening. 

“Sonic, get back.” He said weakly before opening the door.

Phil was alone. Denise was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey.” He said.

“Hey.” Dan responded.

“We should talk.”

“You’re not getting Sonic.” Dan blurted out.

“Shared custody, Dan. I’m not taking him away from you, we will be sharing him.”

“I don’t want to share him.” Dan said, biting back tears.

“Let’s go inside.”

“This isn’t your house anymore.” Dan stepped outside to keep Phil from coming in. “You don’t get to just go inside anymore.”

Phil sighed and dropped his head. “I’m sorry, Dan. I really am.”

“About what?”

“About everything. I know you were jealous of how much Sonic liked Denise.”

“I don’t care about that.” Dan lied. He hated that Phil was being patient. He wanted him to shout and say all the words Dan had imagined him saying.

“We can take Sonic every other week.” 

“Please don’t take him from me too.” Dan’s voice cracked. He put his foot in front of Sonic so the dog couldn’t go out to greet Phil.

Phil was silent for a moment. “Too?”

“What?”

“Is that what you meant yesterday on the phone? You said I couldn’t take both the things you loved most. One is Sonic.”

Dan took a step back.

“Am I the other?”

“It doesn’t matter now.”

“It does.” Phil carefully pushed Dan out of the way and walked into the house. “Close the door.” Dan did as he was told. “Am I the other?”

Dan hesitated but then shrugged, “Yes.” He admitted. “From the moment I got off that train and saw you across the station I knew it would always be you.”

“You never said.”

“Of course not. I knew you wouldn’t feel the same. And well, you went and got yourself a girlfriend, didn’t you?”

“You should’ve told me.” Phil insisted.

“Why? So I could’ve embarrassed myself? So you could get a good laugh out of it?”

“No, you idiot.” Phil grabbed Dan’s shirt and pulled him closer. In the dimly lit hallway of their old shared apartment they kissed for the first time. Dan’s hands found their way to Phil’s hair. He had waited for this moment for years but he’d never imagined it’d happen like this.

“Shit.” Phil whispered when they pulled apart. “We shouldn’t have done that.”

“Why not?” Dan asked, still in a daze.

“I have a girlfriend.” 

That pulled Dan back to the unpleasant reality of things.

“Am I still the thing you love most in the world besides Sonic?” Phil asked.

“Yes.” Dan said with certainty.

Phil nodded and leaned down to pet Sonic, deep in thought. “You want to try this? You think we could do this?”

“What do you mean?”

“This is a big thing. I’ve just moved in with Denise. Breaking up with her now and moving back here would be a big change and a decision I could not turn back.”

“You wouldn’t have to.” Dan assured him, kneeling down too. “You like me too?”

“Dan, when we went on the Wheel of Manchester I knew you were the one I was meant to be with. I just thought fate had messed up and forgotten to give that memo to you too.”

They were both surprised when Dan suddenly started laughing. His shoulders relaxed and a sense of peace washed over him. “We got ourselves into a good mess here, didn’t we?”

Phil was now laughing too. “We sure did. If you believe in this, then I do too. I’m willing to try and make this work.”

“It’s been a long time coming. I think we’ve had enough time to change our minds about each other. If we both still feel the same as we did when we met, I think that’s fate telling us to stick with it.” The dog – their dog – was standing between them, wagging his tail. He seemed to realise he was witnessing an important moment.

“We can’t kiss again for now.” Phil decided resolutely. “That one kiss shouldn’t have happened either. I have to break up with Denise first, I shouldn’t be breaking her trust like that. She doesn’t deserve that.”

It was all fine by Dan. Because the bottom line was that Phil was breaking up with Denise and they would be together. Phil would come back. They wouldn’t need to have a shared custody agreement over Sonic or whatever. They could take care of him together. Like they’d done during the first five months they’d had him, when everything had been perfect and they’d been their own little family.

This day ended up on the list of Days That Changed Everything as the day that started their new life together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! If there's anything you'd like me to write, send me a prompt on my Tumblr Daniactuallysnuffledthatpopcorn or leave a comment! :)


End file.
